Coded UI Support for IE9 with SP1
The main aim of this release is to gain parity with IE8 support in IE9. The scenarios that worked in IE7/IE8 should continue to work on IE9.With this release our main focus is on all the functionality we supported in IE7 & IE8 should continue to work in the same way for IE9.Before going for explaination of supported and non-supported scenario in IE9. I will quickly explain the IE9 different modes.
IE9 runs in two modes browser mode and Document mode.The Browser Mode determines what User-Agent (UA) string IE sends to and how IE evaluates Conditional Comments (More on these topics below).The Document Mode dictates what mode IE Trident engine will renders the markup in such as IE9’s Standards Mode.
Types of Browser Mode in IE9 |
Types of Document Mode in IE9 |
IE9 ( IE9 Full functionality) |
IE9 Standards |
IE9 Compatibility View ( IE9 emulated to IE7/IE8) |
IE8 Standards |
IE8 |
IE7 Standards |
IE7 |
Quirks |
Users can change Browser Mode by clicking on the Compatibility View (CV) button, which causes IE8 and IE9 to emulate the IE7 browser Developers can change Browser Mode through the “Browser Mode” menu in IE’s F12 Developer Tools .
User/Developer can change the Document Mode by pressing F12 on the IE browser.
The more detail explanation can be found here.
Details of Supported Vs Not Supported Scenario’s In IE9
Scenario |
Type of Browser and Mode in Recording |
Type of Browser and Mode in Playback |
Supported /not Supported |
Record in IE9 compatibility mode on an application and playback in IE9 compatibility mode |
IE9 Compatibility Mode |
IE9 Compatibility Mode |
Supported |
Record in IE7/IE8 mode playback in IE9 compatibility mode |
IE7/IE8 mode |
IE9 Compatibility Mode |
Supported |
Record in IE7/IE8 mode playback in IE9 Standard mode |
IE7/IE8 mode |
IE9 Mode |
Supported |
Record in IE9 compatibility mode on an application and playback in IE9 standard mode |
IE9 Compatibility Mode |
IE9 Mode |
Supported |
Record in IE9 compatibility mode on an application and playback in IE7/IE8 |
IE9 Compatibility Mode |
IE7/IE8 mode |
Supported |
Record in IE9 mode on an application that uses new IE9 features and controls and playback in IE9 Standard Mode |
IE9 Mode |
IE9 Mode |
Not Supported |
Record in IE9 mode on an application that uses new IE9 features and controls and playback in IE7/IE8 versions of IE |
IE9 Mode |
IE7/IE8 mode |
Not Supported |
Record in IE9 and playback in FireFox |
IE9 Mode |
Firefox |
Not Supported |
Note:
IE7/IE8 Mode: In IE9 browser user has selected IE8 mode through browser mode.
IE9 Mode: This Mode represents selection of IE9 in Browser mode and selection of IE9 standard in Document Mode.
The Following table shows the behavior of Silverlight Application with Silverlight plugin wrt to IE9 browser.
| Scenario with SL plugin | Mode in Recording | Mode in Playback | Supported /not Supported |
| Record in IE9 Standard mode with New IE features on Silverlight application and playback in IE9 Standard mode or IE 9 Compatibility Mode | IE9 Mode | IE9 Mode / IE9 Compatibility Mode | Not Supported |
| Record in IE9 Standard mode with New IE features on Silverlight application and playback in IE9 Compatibility mode or IE8/IE7 mode | IE9 Mode | IE9 Compatibility Mode or IE7/IE8 mode | Not Supported |
| Record in IE9 compatibility mode on Silverlight application and playback in IE9 compatibility mode or IE7/IE8 | IE9 Compatibility Mode | IE9 Compatibility Mode or IE7/IE8 mode | Supported |
The Following table shows the behavior of few important scenarios before SP1 release and after SP1 release.
Feature/user Actions wrt to IE9 |
Behavior before SP1 release |
Behavior after SP1 release |
Choose File To Upload Dialog |
Any recording/code that was done in IE7/IE8 on this control will fail to playback in IE9 |
This Issue has been fixed |
Auto Complete Dialog Recording |
The Dialog has changed in IE9 which has resulted in failure. |
This issue has been fixed |
Whitespace handling in IE9 for search of any control |
In IE9 search was failing for few controls due to whitespace mismatch in search |
This issue has been fixed |
Title Bar , Close Button , Restore Button not being recognized in IE9 Compatibility Mode |
The hierarchy of the title bar, Close and restore Button has been changed in IE9 so we do not recognize it. Due to this behavior when we record in IE9 Compatibility mode for the following actions like actions on title bar, minimize/maximize, close button, resize window will fail when we playback in IE8 |
This issue has been fixed |
Notification Bar/IE Dialog |
In IE9, these dialogs have become Notification Bars. Actions on the notification bars will be recorded and played back like normal actions without "ContinueOnError" flag. Any recording/code that was done in IE7/IE8 on this control will fail to playback in IE9. |
This issue has been fixed for high priority dialogs but there might be still few dialogs where user might end in above scenario. |